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Start at the Bottom

Thanks for the fine cover story on SkiLink that featured former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson and Save Our Canyons spokesman Carl Fisher [“Broken Link,” Jan. 10, City Weekly].

According to the story, after a few sleepless nights, lobbyist Wilson decided that SkiLink is good, although the only justification he can come up with in its favor is that it might reduce traffic in the canyon.

Wilson may have joined the bought-and-paid-for white-belt crowd, but he’s no dummy. So he must know the traffic ruse is baloney. Here’s why: First, the number of cars going from the Canyons to Solitude is a tiny fraction of Big Cottonwood
traffic. Second, everyone knows that the ski resorts are salivating for interconnects
in order to create a “European-style ski experience” that would be unrivaled
anywhere in the world.

If SkiLink is popular, common sense dictates that it will lure more people to the resorts, not less. Some will figure it would be fun to ride from Big C to Park City. Up the canyon they go. For others, once people find out that the skiing in Big C is superior to Park City, and cheaper, they will decide not to waste time riding SkiLink and just drive up Big C directly. SkiLink will not reduce traffic.

However, the overwhelming danger SkiLink presents is the awful precedent it would set. If Congress can require the Forest Service to sell off wilderness-quality land to a Canadian real-estate and mining conglomerate, the floodgates will open for the ski resorts and other developers to get our lap-dog representatives to greenlight whatever pet project they are drooling over. Remember, these are the same folks who want to force the feds to turn over all of our public lands to the state.

There is nothing for we, the people, in SkiLink. It’s a public-land grab, ski-resort expansion and wilderness killer.

Ted Wilson dreams of a time when folks will be able to access the Wasatch canyons without ever touching the gas pedal. A fine idea. But, Ted, if you’re serious about reducing traffic in the canyons, the place to start is at the bottom, not the top. Luring people up the mountain with ski-links and other inappropriate diversions and sideshows is not going to “solve” or “improve” anything.